Bridge-builder at 13

Ajani Carr has heeded his great-grandfather’s advice to “to serve other people.”

Last week, Ajani Carr sat waiting for Madison Police Chief Mike Koval with high hopes and a handwritten list of concerns. The 13-year-old wanted to discuss homelessness, police-community relations and teens feeling unsafe around law enforcement.

Soft-spoken but relentless, Carr is tackling tough issues. This summer he founded Building Bosses, an incorporated organization on the path to nonprofit status through a GoFundMe effort that aims to empower low-income youth to become entrepreneurs and leaders. It’s his response to the 2,600-plus shootings this year in Chicago, where he spent the summer.

At home, Carr will launch “Building Bosses Presents Field Day” at Penn Park on Sept. 18, the first in a series of game-oriented events connecting black community members with law enforcement to build tolerance and connection.

Carr dreams that through interactions like this, “someday when a police officer sees a black teen on the street, rather than think he’s doing something wrong, they’ll think, ‘there’s somebody’s son.’”

With the Fitchburg Police Department on board, Carr hopes to recruit the Madison police to Field Day.

Carr’s backstory is riddled with loss. When he was 2 years old and his mother, Dorecea Carr, was 19, his grandmother was raped and murdered in Chicago. The murder triggered a pattern of homelessness that persisted until 2008. In 2009, his cousin Derrion Albert, a 16-year-old Chicago honors student, was beaten to death by other teens while walking to school. A month later his uncle was killed by a stray bullet. In 2012 Carr lost his “granddaddy,” whom he idolized, to cancer. In addition, his father, Durant Carr, is on dialysis, and his mother battles a rare autoimmune disease.

“My [great]-grandfather used to say, ‘As a person on this earth you have to serve other people,’” Carr says. “After he died I started thinking about what he was actually saying and how I can embed that in my own mind so I can impact the world in a positive way.”

When Tony Robinson was killed by a Madison police officer in March 2015, Carr wrote Andrea Irwin, Robinson’s mother, from Atlanta, where he lived at the time. When his family moved to Fitchburg later that year, he befriended her.

His quest for social justice grew. Last year he joined Al Sharpton’s National Action Network. And he began challenging racism at Savannah Oaks Middle School in Verona by reporting incidents of “racially motivated bullying” by white students, which he says included being “called the N-word” and told he should be “whipped because he’s black.”

Feeling ignored by administrators, Carr and his guidance counselor formed a weekly group called Black Voices. Carr circulated a petition, signed by almost 100 students, calling for equity, and later addressed the Verona school board about the issue.

Verona Superintendent Dean Gorrell has advocated for Carr by enrolling him in Verona High School’s leadership programs. Gorrell will also help Carr facilitate Black Voices at other schools.

“This is a kid who wakes up every morning with ideas about how to change things,” says Dorecea Carr. “I have to rein him in.”

“African Americans right now don’t trust police,” he adds. “There’s so much tension between the two; I know what it’s like to hope you don’t get confronted because you don’t know if the situation is going to escalate. So I explained to him what I want to do with Field Day — build a relationship between the police and fire department and the people, mostly black people.”

Koval was impressed. So he assigned an officer to recruit others to attend.

“Ajani was very thoughtful, extremely progressive and forward thinking, and has a good grasp on what’s happening locally and nationally,” says Koval. “He came equipped with a bevy of thoughtful suggestions that could possibly work toward greater opportunities for engagement in the community and trust building.”

Editor’s note: The author donated $25 to Carr’s GoFundMe site.

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Comments (1)

Bridge-builder at 13

Even though this young man has experienced so much tragedy at a young age, instead of letting these very difficult experiences get the better of him, he has searched his young mind for solutions. At age 13 he has filled his life with positivity and direction.Something most people don't find within themselves until adulthood. This young holds hope for the future in his mind, heart and soul and is actively doing something about it. His mother and family must be beyond proud of him. I am!Thank you young man for your humanitarian and 'future forward' ideas to make this world and Madison a more secure place to live and peacefully coincide with each other.I can't give him enough praise as a Black mother and lifelong resident of Madison, for ideas of peace. At such a young age you have mapped out your own destiny. Phenomenal! I believe in you.